Saturday, April 11, 2015

purplepatch fitness!

purplepatch: “A period of excellent performance, where nearly everything seems to go right, work properly, and contrasting with a more general lower level of performance."

It has been at least 7 years since the last time I had a
triathlon coach. I was very fortunate to run under two different hall of fame
track/cross country coaches. You can’t really replicate that sort of experience
from reading books or racking up certifications. At the same time, I had a
couple swim coaches that were technically proficient, but not all that great in
all the other aspects of coaching. I learned -in different ways- from both. I’ve
also been a USAT certified coach for about 8 years. Due to other time
constraints mostly I have just applied this well of coaching knowledge to my
own training and racing. For the most part, I like it this way. I know my own
body exceptionally well and can modify a workout on the fly based on how I am
feeling and within the context of the larger training cycle. This is where I
was at this winter going into what I hope will be my most successful year of
racing.

Even with this context, I am approaching this year with a “leave
no stone unturned” mentality. There are really only a couple coaches in the
country that I know of whom would be a good fit for me. I don’t want to be a
guinea pig for a coach to apply some gimmicky philosophy on. With two kids and
a full time job, I don’t want the mental (and physical) stress of trying to
finish a program with ultra-high mileage weeks. I just end up frustrated when I
can’t get the specified workouts in. I highly value experience and common
sense, but I also wanted a solid grounding in exercise physiology and a passion
for good science. To top it off, I had almost no budget for coaching. You all are
starting to see why I have been self-coached for so long, aren’t you!?

With this rather obnoxious set of criteria in mind, the
coach at the very top of my list was Matt Dixon. If you follow the sport at all
you will be familiar with the name. His writing regarding training and racing
is often found in triathlon magazines and major triathlon websites. Moreover he
has had a great deal of success working with professional athletes and top amateurs
very similar to me. People that have lots of drive, but also lots of
commitments. People like Meredith Kessler who has developed into a top professional
triathlete after many consistent years of working with Matt. People like Jesse
Thomas, Tim Reed and Gina Crawford.There is this record of success, but what really sealed the deal for me
was Matt’s 2014 book entitled, The Well-Built Triathlete. I try to read most of the major books published
about triathlon, and I believe I actually had this one on pre-order.The book outlines Matt’s comprehensive
training philosophy. The philosophy that he lays out was very similar to that
which I have built over time. It is very much not gimmicky. It does focus on
the whole athlete- not just the training. My above-mentioned college
cross-country coach, Paul Olsen, regularly reminded all of his athletes that “Everything
I do affects everything I do.” Long before the controlled research studies on
the topic he drove it into our heads that if we were staying up late and
stressing out about an upcoming test or a relationship issue that it would
directly affect our training just the same as if we were doing extra workouts.
All of those building blocks have to be considered within the context of a
training program. Creating the well-built triathlete requires a foundation of fourpillars: endurance training, functional strength, nutrition/fueling andrecovery.
Nothing really new, right? Not gimmicky, right?I loved it! I found myself nodding along and wanting to post passages on
Facebook to set the unwashed masses of shortcut-seeking triathletes straight.

If you look at the purplepatch coaching pro squad webpage, you
won’t find me there. Frankly, Matt has
a very full plate and a very talented roster of pros. However, after a few
emails back and forth Matt offered me generous sponsorship discount for
his most basic “Performance” level of coaching. This category of coaching
replaces purplepatch’s former Virtual Training Squad which many athletes had
success with.This is essentially a sophisticated
template-based plan. There is definitely some customization for each individual
athlete based on things like race schedule and personal conflicts, but the
workouts in a given period are mostly the same for everyone. Matt designed the
program based around his four pillars philosophy which is what I was looking
for. It may seem odd that a pro with a 20+ year racing background and a coaching
certification would move to a semi-custom program.Here’s why I think it will work for me. First,
I am at a point where I no longer have a major weakness in any of the three
sports. Sport-specific weaknesses don’t always get adequately addressed in a
semi-custom program. Second, because Matt –or another purplepatch coach- is not
writing the program specifically for me I feel much better about making my own
modifications to the schedule. When I’ve had to do that in the past, I always
have a sense of guilt about not following the program to a “T”.This allows me to squeeze in bigger days when
I have time and to cut back when I’m crunched for time or tired.

First race under the purplepatch program resulted in an overall win at the awesome Cactus Classic 1/2 Trail Marathon!

I’ve been following purplepatch workouts for over two months
now. I still can’t get in everything that is prescribed most weeks, but the key
workouts are very clearly identified. I like the workouts. I am swimming longer
than I tend to on my own.I’m doing more
big gear bike workouts than I would have on my own (I’ve always liked these,
just didn’t focus on them enough, probably). The training load is very
manageable. I will wait until mid-summer before I make any judgments about performance
benefits.

If you are self-coached and looking for new ideas about how
to improve your training program, I highly recommend Matt’s The Well-Built Triathlete. If you are
considering hiring a triathlon coach check out the full range of options from
purplepatch fitness. If you have other questions about purplepatch, get in
touch with me!

I don't have the book in front of me, I need to go back and see the level of detail in those plans compared to the workouts I am receiving. Without consulting I would say there are a couple big advantages to stepping up to the paid program: #1 ability to interact with Matt and PP coaches, support of a community that is all training on versions of a similar plan, additional online educational resources and plain old accountability!

These are big advantages for sure. I'm thinking about switching to "performance" coaching option. Right now I'm on "education only membership" and getting all that besides the plan. Would you compare both plans and let me know what do you think? Cheers.